“Grand Theft Auto V” may have had one of the biggest launches in video game history, but its multiplayer mode, dubbed “Grand Theft Auto Online,” has had some serious problems. Since “Grand Theft Auto Online” was released last week, players have been finding their characters and items mysteriously deleted from the game. Finally, “Grand Theft Auto Online” developer Rockstar has responded to the problem, instructing players on how to save their characters.

According to Rockstar, if your character appears to have been deleted in “Grand Theft Auto Online,” don’t freak out and try to create a new one. Instead, log back into the “Grand Theft Auto V” story mode and try again later.

"If you have previously created a character but see an empty character selection screen when entering GTA Online, please back out to GTAV Story Mode and try re-entering GTA Online through the pause menu (repeat or wait until Rockstar cloud servers are back up),” Rockstar wrote in a support update.

“Do not create a new character in the empty slot where your character should be.”

In other words, vanishing characters may not be permanent, but if you create a new character, your old one is lost for good. In the same support update, Rockstar also advised players on how to avoid having their “Grand Theft Auto Online” characters inadvertently deleted by the game’s servers.

"If you receive the message 'The Rockstar Cloud Servers Are Unavailable,' please return to GTAV Story Mode and follow the steps above,” Rockstar wrote. “Please do not press 'Retry' on the message and do not proceed online with saving disabled, as this may lead to overwriting your existing character."

Rockstar also promised users that it is looking to correct the “missing character” problem, though it could be a while before all of the problems with “Grand Theft Auto Online” are fixed for good.